ITIL Practitioner Guidance is the only book you are allowed to take into the Practitioner exam. You should receive a copy as part of your course pack.

Get to grips with the scenario around which the exam is based:

What is the relationship between the organizations within the scenario?

What are their objectives?

Are they a customer or a supplier? Or both?
The scenario can be found within the sample paper

Sitting the sample paper will give you confidence that you know your stuff. Studying the detailed rationale that comes with the sample paper will help you understand what the examiner is looking for. Get into the habit of using the book as a resource that helps you answer the questions.

Mark up your book with written notes, post-it notes and highlighter pen. This will save you time when you need to locate information during the exam.

It’s OK to write in the manual. A clear note added to the text or a figure can help you understand the concepts.

Use a highlighter pen to mark-up salient sections of the manual.

Post-it notes are helpful for adding easy-to-navigate markers. We suggest, as a minimum, you colour code the following:

Guiding principles

CSI approach

The three core competencies

Tools and templates

Other than for navigation, you cannot insert pieces of paper with additional information into your book for the Practitioner exam. The invigilator will check prior to your examination

Within the book:

The pink call-out boxes are Examples that shed light on the topic

The blue call-out boxes are links to the relevant Templates or Tools

Ask questions during the course. How does ITIL relate to your own experience? Your instructor is likely to use real world examples; feel free to create your own. Think about your own organization’s objectives, critical success factors (CSFs) and key performance indicators (KPIs).

What to Expect During the ITIL Practitioner Exam

Don’t forget to take your ITIL Foundation certificate with you to the exam. Foundation is a pre-requisite for taking the Practitioner exam. (You’ll need the certificate from the exam body, not the training provider!)

You have 135 minutes in which to answer 40 questions. This means you have nearly three minutes per multiple-choice question. So don’t panic, stay calm and take your time.

If English is not your first language, you can ask your invigilator for more time to complete the exam. Make sure you clear this *before* the exam begins.

The Exam is built around a case study, which you’ll become familiar with during the course, plus several supplementary scenarios. The questions in the exam relate to the scenarios.

Read the question …. Really read it. Read it again.

Pick out key words in the structure of the scenario, e.g. goal, value, customer.

Some questions are very straight-forward and the obvious answer is the right one. Don’t over-think it.

Don’t be disheartened by hard questions early on in the exam. There are tiers of difficulty within the examination, from simple questions to ones that challenge your understanding.

Ensure you mark your answers according to the invigilator’s instructions. Exam papers are marked using a scanner, so make sure there is no scope for the system to misinterpret your answer.

It is worth putting a small mark on the question paper against questions you are not sure of. You can revisit them at the end if there’s time.

Keep one eye on the clock and avoid spending too long on any one question. If you are not sure of the answer, mark it for later and move on.

Eliminate the options in the answers you know to be incorrect. It makes it easier for the right answer to jump out at you.

Answer every question. It’s multiple-choice – even if you don’t know the answer, you have a one-in-four chance of getting it right.

Go through your answers at the end to ensure you didn’t miss a question, and that you didn’t mark your answers against the wrong questions. It pays to check. But, only change an answer if you are certain you made a mistake. Gut instinct is often right.

What To Do After the ITIL Practitioner Exam

Relax. Don’t spend time worrying about your exam result. The course is still valuable, regardless of your score.

You will receive your result within a few weeks of sitting the exam.

Give your training organization constructive feedback. Be sure to tell them what you liked about the course, as well as what you think they could improve.

Attend events or conferences to learn more about developments in IT Service Management (ITSM). DevOps and agile methodologies are hot topics at these events and you should now be able to see the clear synergies between these methods and philosophies and the thinking behind ITIL Practitioner.

The recommendations for preparation, above, say "Post-it notes are helpful for adding easy-to-navigate markers. We suggest, as a minimum, you colour code the following:Guiding principlesCSI approachThe three core competenciesTools and templates"

I see the Guiding Principles (chapter 2) and CSI Approach (chapter 3) sections in the book as well as the Toolkit (chapter 7) but I don't see any reference to "the three core competencies" in any chapter or section of the book. Where is this portion of the book? I have the most recent ITIL Practitioner Guidance book - I don't know if there is a different version?

Hello, I just want to be clear as I am preparing for my test next week. The post--its that we are able to add to the book are for navigation only correct or can their be small notes on them? It is also ok to highlight important sections. Thanks in advance!

Hello, I just want to be clear as I am preparing for my test next week. The post--its that we are able to add to the book are for navigation only correct or can their be small notes on them? It is also ok to highlight important sections. Thanks in advance!

The text suggests: "Mark up your book with written notes, post-it notes and a highlighter pen. This will save you time when you need to locate information during the exam."That means I can take notes in the book, mark text passages and add posted as a quick finder in the book to locate certain areas in the book in the test?

I read in other forums that only a complete unmarked copy of the book is allowed in the test? What are the actual regulations about this?